Featured Artist : Denise Torrance

I live in Pineville, North Carolina with my husband Lee Baumgarten who is also an accomplished artist and my two boys equally as talented in the arts.  For years, I have been creating mosaics with an emphasis on surface quality, texture exploration and diversity in color concepts. Only recently have I been provoking the intuitive and conceptual side of my ideas. I recently shifted in focus to produce a series of what I have coined to be “silk mosaics”. These works stay aligned with my artistic passions, intent, and desires.  Art gives me a sense of equanimity.  It has always been my testament to womanhood, attempting to translate the world as I see it, as I want it-something about beauty through empowerment of a paintbrush.  It is through my love of art that I find balance and feel compelled to share my vision and the vision of the women I choose to capture on silk and in mosaics.  I exclusively use Jacquard Silk Colors (Green Label) for all of my paintings.  Through these paintings, I was awarded a 2014 Regional Artist Project Grant from the Arts & Science Council which granted me the funds to purchase The Vertical Electric Steamer!  I am thrilled and cannot wait to use it!